Home prices continue to fall on Long Island -- Real Estate Agen...

[Leave LI]

WizeOne wrote:

<quoted text> True, and what having an even greater effect on declining values is the tightening up of mortgage money! Banks now want big down payments, high incomes and stellar credit. On top of that, banks are now sending out appraisers who devalue the home far under the asking price, and the banks refuse to lend money over that amount! This is going to get much much worse before it gets any better.

You are wise. You get it.

[dumas]

love you guys

[HarleyRider]

raygoto wrote:

<quoted text>
Did you mean 50k? 50g means 50 grams. So lets get our units of measurement correct, first.
Second, houses on LI didn't go for 50k 25 years ago. They went for 100-130k in Suffolk, more in Nassau 25 years ago.
They were maybe 50k in the late 60s. So lets try to keep facts and figures based in reality, shall we?
I sold my home in Smithtown in the late 90's for 200k, and 10 years later the same home goes for 600k. Now that is whacky!

I understood that he meant 50 grand, but K is the more recognized.

also, in 1975 my parents sold their house in a nice area of Massapequa for 57K.

[WizeOne]

HarleyRider wrote:

<quoted text>
I understood that he meant 50 grand, but K is the more recognized.
also, in 1975 my parents sold their house in a nice area of Massapequa for 57K.

And in 1948 my grandparents bought a house in Levittown for $8K!

[Pliny]

Real Facts wrote:

<quoted text>
Today, I do not care if my home is worth $100k, as my home is a place for me to live.
Yes, I would love my home to be worth a million dollars when I sell it, but now that we have decided to stay, I could care less about how much it is worth.

*
I share a similar philosophy. But the thing that is absolutely toxic to people who believe as we do are the excessive taxes paid to school districts and to local government - especially the portion dedicated to police services. Increasing the taxes the way they do year after year on a *non-income-generating* asset (one's residential property), and basing it on a figure that the assessor pulls out of his a**, is insane. This is doing more to drive people away than anything else.

[eiC]

Ligal wrote:

<quoted text>Salaries have been the same for 10yrs its crazy

it is true that they lived in the house for a long time and they paid THEN WHAT IT COSTS A CAR NOW DAYS- BUT DID YOU ASKED THEM HOW MUCH SALARY THEY HAD - AND HOW MUCH THEY PAYD FOR A GAL A MILK?-THAN!
THE PROPORTION IS THE SAME.

[Real Facts]

And the funny part is, all in all, I do not have a problem with the idea of having taxes, unlike, say, Wesley Snipes. However, it is very much what I tell my 13 year old daughter. I don’t care what we do, as long as we use it. You can order the shrimp cocktail and the burger, as long as you eat it, but if you are not hungry, then order the kids meal. And turn off the lights when you leave the room.
So, it is not the taxes themselves that I really have an issue with, it is the fact that every other week my kids seem to have a half day, or no school at all. It is every time I see some sort of taxpayer supported person sitting around instead of working. It is the police that have flag day as a paid holiday, or the road construction crew that always seems to be standing around when I drive by. I get annoyed when I hear that Daddy got little Bobby a job at the local water authority that pays $90k a year and includes a company car complete with the built in rear seat entertainment system.
I do get annoyed to hear that we pay 4 times as much to buy a fire truck than New York City pays, or that some local “official” is staying in a suite at the Venetian for a week to attend some sort of conference. Why a local superintendent of schools needs to go to a conference in Las Vegas is beyond me, don’t we have enough superintendents here on Long Island to have a conference at the Marriott in Uniondale? Feel free to replace the words “superintendent of schools” in my previous sentence with “Fire Commissioners”,“Village Mayors”,“Teachers/Fireman/Poli cemen” or “Other County Officials”.
It is my understanding that there are over 900 special taxing districts here on Long Island. I think that Long Island needs to address why it is so expensive here. First, they need to look at consolidation. Other places have single county or regional School, Water and Sewer, Fire Districts, police departments, and the like. Look, in a two mile radius of my house, there are the district offices of 5 school districts, 19 fire houses from 5 different departments, and if you include the LIRR, an area that is patrolled by five different police departments. We have roads that are maintained by State, County, Town and village departments. Nobody wants to give up there little fiefdom.
Seriously, do we really need five School superintendents each costing well over a quarter of a million in total compensation, plus five secretaries (who has secretaries anymore), as well as all the other costs (5 maintenance departments, five purchasing departments, five legal departments, five accounting departments). Being able to purchase everything in bulk from chalk to light bulbs is a huge savings too. National fire safety suggests that people live within two miles of a fire house. Do we really need 19 firehouses, 66 trucks and other pieces of equipment, and about 16 chief cars and trucks. I understand the need for a chief to have a car, but at $4 a gallon for gas, is there a better way than issuing 16 SUVs, with everyone using them for all personal business? Could we get away with an on-call chief, and that one gets the truck for the day (or week). Keep one as a spare. Fourteen less $50,000 trucks means about three quarters of a million in savings every few years. Toss in all the gas savings, registration, insurance and the like, and there is a million.
A million here, and a million there, and soon you are talking real money. It is the complete waste that I cannot stand.

[Pliny]

Real Facts wrote:

And the funny part is, all in all, I do not have a problem with the idea of having taxes, unlike, say, Wesley Snipes. However, it is very much what I tell my 13 year old daughter. I don’t care what we do, as long as we use it. You can order the shrimp cocktail and the burger, as long as you eat it, but if you are not hungry, then order the kids meal. And turn off the lights when you leave the room.
So, it is not the taxes themselves that I really have an issue with, it is the fact that every other week my kids seem to have a half day, or no school at all. It is every time I see some sort of taxpayer supported person sitting around instead of working. It is the police that have flag day as a paid holiday, or the road construction crew that always seems to be standing around when I drive by. I get annoyed when I hear that Daddy got little Bobby a job at the local water authority that pays $90k a year and includes a company car complete with the built in rear seat entertainment system.
I do get annoyed to hear that we pay 4 times as much to buy a fire truck than New York City pays, or that some local “official” is staying in a suite at the Venetian for a week to attend some sort of conference. Why a local superintendent of schools needs to go to a conference in Las Vegas is beyond me, don’t we have enough superintendents here on Long Island to have a conference at the Marriott in Uniondale? Feel free to replace the words “superintendent of schools” in my previous sentence with “Fire Commissioners”,“Village Mayors”,“Teachers/Fireman/Poli cemen” or “Other County Officials”.
It is my understanding that there are over 900 special taxing districts here on Long Island. I think that Long Island needs to address why it is so expensive here. First, they need to look at consolidation. Other places have single county or regional School, Water and Sewer, Fire Districts, police departments, and the like. Look, in a two mile radius of my house, there are the district offices of 5 school districts, 19 fire houses from 5 different departments, and if you include the LIRR, an area that is patrolled by five different police departments. We have roads that are maintained by State, County, Town and village departments. Nobody wants to give up there little fiefdom.
Seriously, do we really need five School superintendents each costing well over a quarter of a million in total compensation, plus five secretaries (who has secretaries anymore), as well as all the other costs (5 maintenance departments, five purchasing departments, five legal departments, five accounting departments). Being able to purchase everything in bulk from chalk to light bulbs is a huge savings too. National fire safety suggests that people live within two miles of a fire house. Do we really need 19 firehouses, 66 trucks and other pieces of equipment, and about 16 chief cars and trucks. I understand the need for a chief to have a car, but at $4 a gallon for gas, is there a better way than issuing 16 SUVs, with everyone using them for all personal business? Could we get away with an on-call chief, and that one gets the truck for the day (or week). Keep one as a spare. Fourteen less $50,000 trucks means about three quarters of a million in savings every few years. Toss in all the gas savings, registration, insurance and the like, and there is a million.
A million here, and a million there, and soon you are talking real money. It is the complete waste that I cannot stand.

*
Very well stated. I think you're spot-on with all the points you made. You can also add to that list unnecessary overtime given to municipal workers. Clearly, a lot of this work can be done during the regular work week and not on Saturdays at time and a half.

[Bangkok Bill]

WizeOne wrote:

<quoted text> And in 1948 my grandparents bought a house in Levittown for $8K!

Now it is a very overpriced dump.

[WizeOne]

Bangkok Bill wrote:

<quoted text>Now it is a very overpriced dump.

Actually, Levittown prices have dropped around $50K+ over the last year!

[eLITE]

WizeOne wrote:

<quoted text> Actually, Levittown prices have dropped around $50K+ over the last year!

Wow, and the drop has only just begun,.... I suspect it will get worse before it gets better

[Roger]

A large percentage of subprime mortgages flip to thier higher rates this month and next. By September, the parents will be fed up with subsidizing the kiddies. By the end of the year, foreclosures will REALLY be skyrocketing. Most definitely, it will get MUCH worse before it gets better. Personally, I agree with Warren Buffet who claims that we won't even begin to see any daylight until 2010. Of course, the real estate brokers disagree with him. But then again, they're the only one's who haven't seen a decent paycheck in 6 months. Berkshire Hathaway continues to prosper and make money for their investors.

[eLITE]

Roger wrote:

A large percentage of subprime mortgages flip to thier higher rates this month and next. By September, the parents will be fed up with subsidizing the kiddies. By the end of the year, foreclosures will REALLY be skyrocketing. Most definitely, it will get MUCH worse before it gets better. Personally, I agree with Warren Buffet who claims that we won't even begin to see any daylight until 2010. Of course, the real estate brokers disagree with him. But then again, they're the only one's who haven't seen a decent paycheck in 6 months. Berkshire Hathaway continues to prosper and make money for their investors.

Once again your analysis is right on.,...

what happened to Upper Echelon Michael?

[WizeOne]

Just checked, prices are down again. This sucks.

[chris]

Screw long island. The place sucks. I would never buy a house the size of a closet for 450k and spend 8k a year on taxes. I would need to make like 250k a year in salary, if not more. I dont see any late 20 somethings or 30 somethings really making that.

I also noticed most younger people dont want to pay these prices for a house and barely have any downpayment saved.

[WizeOne]

chris wrote:

Screw long island. The place sucks. I would never buy a house the size of a closet for 450k and spend 8k a year on taxes. I would need to make like 250k a year in salary, if not more. I dont see any late 20 somethings or 30 somethings really making that.
I also noticed most younger people dont want to pay these prices for a house and barely have any downpayment saved.

Unless they want to live with their parents, young couples are moving out of state in droves! They will come back when LI home prices and taxes come down to affordable late 1990s levels.

[tmptjohn88]

WizeOne wrote:

<quoted text> Unless they want to live with their parents, young couples are moving out of state in droves! They will come back when LI home prices and taxes come down to affordable late 1990s levels.

Unfortunantly that is what i had to do, move to a different state, and hope that i will be able to afford to move back up north, hopefully though i will have a job in a few months that will allow me to do that

[Real Facts]

Pliny wrote:

<quoted text>
*
Very well stated. I think you're spot-on with all the points you made. You can also add to that list unnecessary overtime given to municipal workers. Clearly, a lot of this work can be done during the regular work week and not on Saturdays at time and a half.

I would also like to add on that last weekend, I was visiting friends in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Interesting place, very similar to Nassau. A suburb of a major city, yet with some major employers in the county or surrounding area. However, one county wide school system, with one superintendent (not 34), making $250,000. While taxes are also high, they are substantially less than Long Island.

Long Island has over 900 special taxing authorities, Fairfax County, has 10. It even has a web page with all of them: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/realestateta...

By the way, I should also note, that the kids in the school system there do very well. They go on to some of the best schools in the country.